Pratt, Betsey

Merry Christmas! This week has been great. We had a Christmas zone conference which was a party, it was in the chapel in my old area! It was all decorated and we did a talent show thing, white elephant gifts, and then the President and his wife had gifts for everyone! It made it feel a little bit like Christmas, and we got to see all of our missionary friends! We finally had a lesson with one of our amigos, so hopefully there will be a baptism in an email very soon.  I finally feel like I know the new area, and most of the members and it is only going to get better now that we are settled! We celebrated Christmas on the 24th as the Chileans do. Which means we ate dinner instead of just lunch, and we hung out with the bishop and his family, and did a little family home evening. Then on Christmas day it was overcast so even though it was hot and humid all week, we had a white Christmas after all.  I ate a lot of food this week. We made cookies and members gave us treats, then we...

Please share a few successes and/or challenges from your efforts to fulfill your missionary purpose this past week. It is hard to change a+er getting comfortable in my first area, but it's been better than I thought. The ward is super awesome and the people here could really use the gospel. A lot of people don't want to talk to us and it is hard to schedule lessons with our friends but everyday we plan and we pray and we try with every person to help them. Nevertheless we see tons of miracles every day from the people we meet and the places we go, I can always find gods hand in my life What is one area you can focus on this coming week to more closely follow the principles in Missionary Standards for Disciples of Jesus Christ? Being more ready and in tune with the spirit so that when a person comes along I will know what they need and I will have the confidence to be able to help them Who did you participate in exchanges with? Hermana Maher How did the exchange go? So good. I l...

Please share a few successes and/or challenges from your efforts to fulfill your missionary purpose this past week. Tenemos algunos lecciónes que fue muy bueno! Y muchas milagros pasando alrededor What is one area you can focus on this coming week to more closely follow the principles in Missionary Standards for Disciples of Jesus Christ? Aprendiendo un nuevo lugar y mucho personas y poniendo confiaren Dios y su plan Who did you participate in exchanges with? How did the exchange go? Is there anything happening at home or with your family that you would like to share? (Optional) Is there anything else you would like to share? (Optional)

The beginning of the first transfer of my mission has been loco! We left early for the mission office and I said goodbye to Hermana Eriksson. Then I got to spend the morning in the mission office with Hermana Hiatt again, just like our first day!  Then I met my new companion, Hermana Garcia!! Everyone who has been hoping that I would get a native companion, your prayers have been answered, well kind of. She is from Mexico, not Chile, but still, she only speaks spanish. It is a challenge to communicate sometimes but she has a lot of patience with me and I am learning more and more Spanish every day.  We live in the smallest apartment of the mission, and it is basically just a glorified hallway. But we have hot water, a nice bunk bed, and food (now that we have gone shopping), so really it isn't bad. We have spent this whole week trying to get to know the ward and work with the information the elders left for us. Although our house is tiny, our area is huge, and w...

So much has been happening!! Here's the rundown.  We have had a bunch of fire lessons this week. We gave away a book of Mormon and have two friends who are working towards baptism.  We made brownies and decided to share with the elders, who were very grateful.  We accidently took the wrong bus and left our zone for a hot minute.  We did a blitz in a dangerous sector but the craziest thing that happened was finding a very interested person, crashing a members birthday party, and being stuck in the rain at the bus stop for an hour. This was the last week of the transfer so just in case we've been saying goodbye to people all week. The transfer news came at 10:40 on Saturday night, but we were already in bed, so we found out at 7 am on sunday that they are whitewashing our area with elders. And me and hermana eriksson will be parting ways! She is going to Chillan which is 2 hours away from my new area in Collao. In Collao there are 2 sets of Hermanas, and one of them is...

Please share a few successes and/or challenges from your efforts to fulfill your missionary purpose this past week. We found a new person who seems very interested! But our other friends seem to be struggling and our work moves very slowly What is one area you can focus on this coming week to more closely follow the principles in Missionary Standards for Disciples of Jesus Christ? Following the spirit and the promptings I feel Who did you participate in exchanges with? How did the exchange go? Is there anything happening at home or with your family that you would like to share? (Optional) Is there anything else you would like to share? (Optional)  

This week was so crazy, but first off thank you everyone who sends me emails. I love reading about your lives and hearing from you!  Other than that it's been adventurous.  We know this member and we visit him all the time. He's 95 years old and he's so cute. His daughter is at his house to help him and we just go talk to them and she always gives us so much food. She's so nice and we just love visiting with them. We visit these other members, Dora and Marisol, all the time. Marisol is blind but they're always super sweet and they always help me with my Spanish. I'm so grateful for all the members here.  On Wednesday we had a crazy thing happen. There was a drunk guy in his car and he was trying to talk to us and then we were like 'okay here's our pamphlet' and he was like 'get in my car come with me'. So we are trying to get away and we get in  another car with this couple and we thought they were going to drive us away but then they got out...

Please share a few successes and/or challenges from your efforts to fulfill your missionary purpose this past week. I felt more confident this week, and was able to talk to more people and understand what they said to me. I did find that I wanted to say things in english a lot which was strange because I've gotten so used to speaking in spanish What is one area you can focus on this coming week to more closely follow the principles in Missionary Standards for Disciples of Jesus Christ? Having the spirit in every lesson and then keeping that spirit with me all throughout the day Who did you participate in exchanges with? How did the exchange go? Is there anything happening at home or with your family that you would like to share? (Optional) Is there anything else you would like to share? (Optional) During the past month, how have you seen the hand of the Lord in your work? In everything! He has made this awesome place and provided a house for us. He has played the people in our ward...